Platonov - Kosnoyazuchie

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Lily Alexander wrote:

> ...
> I was looking last week in a bookstore at the complete script of 
> Seinfeld, and was thinking about buying it. On paper, the power of 
> language in the dialogues is even more clear. The script centers on a 
> word or a notion that seems known, habitual and banal, and offensively 
> makes fun of it by displacing it in contexts or repeating it to death. 
> The word and its core meaning, together with the users, turn absurd. As 
> often in Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm). My family is a "big fan" of 
> stand-up comedy, and these people twist words in amazing ways.
> 
> This is the closest - what I can think of  - to your uneasy task. That's 
> why I earlier mentioned to you the connection between Platonov and 
> Chaplin. What Chaplin does with the gravity of a body, Platonov does to 
> a stability of a word in language.
> 
> Of course Platonov is much more tender, kind, philosophical and 
> mythological than David. Larry David, the writer of Seinfeld and Curb, 
> especially in the latter -  he is too gloomy and his twisted words drop 
> on your head like stones. Your don't want to live in his universe. He is 
> way too ruthless and sarcastic to be compared to Platonov. One loved his 
> heroes and another does not. But David is good, and nobody has such 
> freedom of word-twisting in this intentionally awkward way (not even 
> English-American modernist poets) as the best of the comedians. And 
> after all - you are translating for the contemporary readers, and you 
> want them to accept and like Platonov as their own.

One sitcom I've enjoyed over the years specifically because it's /not/ 
bitter, sarcastic, or cynical is /Dharma and Greg/. The lead character 
-- and in fact most of the characters -- are fundamentally happy and 
playful, and though the writers (Chuck Lorre and Dottie Dortland) play 
on their quirks and foibles, it's generally not to sabotage them but to 
reveal them and humanize them.

<http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0118303/>

"Where Dharma & Greg stands apart from all other shows is in how you 
laugh at it. you don't! You laugh WITH it. In Raymond you laugh at the 
characters when they get in one of their many arguments. In Frasier you 
laugh when he and Niles do something snobbish. There is a general trend 
in sitcom humour, akin to the newspaper saying of 'it bleeds, it leads', 
that trend is making us laugh by making the characters miserable, making 
them argue, in general, we laugh at their misfortune. On the other hand 
Dharma is at its best when we are laughing with the characters, at their 
happiness, because unlike most other shows, the characters in D&G do 
laugh. They laugh at themselves, at each other, at the situations they 
encounter, and when they are laughing and having a good time I find it 
much more funny, much more real, then when I'm asked to laugh at Ray's 
pathetic brother or Jim's flimsy excuses to his angry wife. Life is 
funny, why do none of the characters in other sitcoms realize it?"

<http://www.amazon.com/Dharma-Greg-Season-Joel-Murray/dp/B000EXDRZI/sr=1-1/qid=1161821165/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-6372223-1120945?ie=UTF8&s=dvd>

"Dharma and Greg rocks. This show was funny, witty, and highly 
entertaining. Although it is available in syndication almost everywhere, 
it is worth purchasing, if for no other reason than to support good 
writing, talented acting, and sheer television pleasure.

"I have never understood why this show didn't last longer. In an age of 
really stupid 'I don't deserve my wife' sitcoms, this program reminds us 
that it is possible to have a smart and engaging show about new 
marriage. Although the initial premise (a couple meet and marry on the 
same day despite wildly different lifestyles and beliefs) was a bit 
farcical, a superb ensemble cast held it together with finesse. This 
show handled serious, realistic situations with uncharacteristic grace 
and humor. Many times, it could have gone down the road with cheap gags 
and one-liners (and sometimes, to be honest, it does) but the situations 
are usually quite well-thought out.

"Totally worth the cost and then some. This is NOT your typical stupid 
sitcom. For people jaded with today's sub-par crop, pick this up and 
remember that there are actually comedy writers who are funny, or at 
least there were in the recent past!"

End of plug.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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